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Vinzenz Brandle

For the past 26 years, Vinzenz Brandle has been collecting the autographs of famous people. His 100,000-strong collection, made up mostly of football stars and including 15,000 signed photographs, began many moons ago with the autograph of erstwhile Swiss international Daniel Jeandupeux. Today he can lay claim to the signatures of almost any top player you would care to mention, from Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Kaka to Maldini, Messi and Eto’o, but he retains a huge passion for his hobby and still sends off three or four letters a day to supplement his impressive collection. Italian footballers rarely send signed photos, Brandle points out, and the autographs of Argentinian players are apparently also hard to get hold of. “I’ve been trying to get Maxi Rodriguez and Juan Pablo Sorin for ages,” he says. By comparison, German players are far more accommodating. Brandle is also full of praise for Cristiano Ronaldo after thefamous Portuguese winger sent him not only an autograph but also a photo with a personal dedication. Ronaldo’s Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney, on the other hand, no longer signs autographs himself, but leaves it to a machine instead. “I thinks it’s a shame when players stop taking the trouble to sign autographs,” said Brandle. “A lot of footballers neglect their fans these days.”